Guild Wars 2

So I was in WvW on my S/D Thief (Balanced build with 15000 HP 0/30/30/0/10) with another thief, we’re both max leveled (to add perspective we were on the ruins by south camp in the BL, and other allies had already engaged this Mesmer), and we had this Mesmer pinned against a wall and were about to finish her then Wham! We’re both instantly hit multiple times for 4500 confusion damage and downed in an instant.

I’m just wondering how I can avoid this in the future? It seemed to come out of nowhere as a flash guard.

Most confusion has a wind up… now if you were both right on top of the Mesmer and he had 3 clones out the confusion can come in at 8 stacks. And the only way that the Mesmer can hit you with 4500 (an absurd amount) is if they are full condi damage which it sounds like they were… if you guys were traited right then you could remove it while stealthed… other than that… just pause for 3 seconds and let it wear off… There isn’t much the Mesmer can do in terms of heavy damage unless you yourself were also a GC.

Since you’re both hit by large Confusion stacks at the same time, the culprit is most likely Cry of Frustration. The way to deal with that is the same as with Mind Wrack: dodge the Shatter. If she is an asura, she may also have used Pain Inverter at the same time (which, by the way, is my favourite combo: 9 stacks of Confusion on an unsuspecting group is devastating).

Other things to consider is to have instant condition removal (far too rare in WvW and one of the reasons why condition builds can cause such havoc), use stealth (it messes up Shatters), or indeed just wait it out. Although in WvW you’d likely have to wait 5 – 7 seconds for Confusion to wear off as any WvW condition build will likely use Rare Veggie Pizzas to extent their condition durations.

I play a rabid condition Mez and in all honesty I’ve never seen it proc for 4500. The only real protection against a condition build, from any class, is to invest in Vit. More health allows you to better withstand degenerative damage. Toughness improves your ability to withstand direct damage not degenerative damage such as Confusion.

You can reach 4000+ with condition damage boosters and a sizable burst (e.g. CoF + Confusing Images), so 4500 is not at all far-fetched.

While Vitality certainly helps, IMO your best bet is to invest in condition removal; IMO if your build isn’t designed with decent Vitality to begin with (especially with a profession like the Thief) then you’d sacrifice less by getting some condition removal instead. It’s also the best way to deal with Confusion, which is more likely to be applied in bursts rather than like a DoT.

Apostate.2459:

I play a rabid condition Mez and in all honesty I’ve never seen it proc for 4500.

Fight 3. 7k ish proc x4.

Best way to fight a confusion Mesmer is to figure out they are a confusion Mesmer.
Most will lead with confusion. So take an initial hit and read your opponent before opening up on them. As a thief you have a lot of battlefield control. After figuring out they are a confusion build. Wait for their burst

I ran the numbers. In order to achieve 4500 hits with 8 stacks, you’d need 2883 condition damage, an unreasonable amount. However, my money is on the mesmer having 3 clones out, and doing an instantaneous cry + mirror images + decoy + mind wrack to stack up 12 stacks. With 12 stacks, only 1600 condition damage (with no might) would be needed, and this makes a lot more sense.

Ultimately, there’s no way to avoid this sort of burst. A really skilled mesmer waits until they see a thief or ele or something commit to an attack, and then does that burst. Shatters happening that fast have no obvious visual effects to warn you that you suddenly have 12 stacks of confusion on you, and you’ll be dead before you realize what happened.

The only true counter is to not get hit with it. If you engage a mesmer, they shouldn’t see you engage. If you actually engage out of stealth, its child’s play to do that burst at the proper time. If you engage from stealth (especially with sword main-hand) it can be far more difficult to do the burst in time.

Kylia’s got a really good tip there actually. A condition Mesmer is not going to kill you fast unless you let them, and you let them doing so by trying to kill them fast. Slow down, be aware of what’s going on, maybe pack a condition removal, and a condition Mesmer should not be a significant threat.

Thankfully the majority of WvWers just rush in and spam everything they’ve got, making them easy prey to condition Mesmers even when they outnumber the Mesmer. A few days ago I was defending a camp by myself against ~5 enemies, and one Confusion burst later 3 of them were on the ground.

I actually do this not just in WvW, but sPvP all the time..

IP+Mirror Images+ random other clone = CoF = 6 or 8 Stacks of confusion on a thief or D/D Ele that is completely focused on trying to Spam me down after i hit 60% health

Generally you guys melt your faces off and either knock me down along with you, where i can continue to apply further confusion, or go down and I can then just watch my clones kill you from afar.

This is the best counter we have against Hyper twitch classes like Thieves, Ultimately its always going to be about a 50/50 chance that a HS/Invis thief or the Confusion Mesmer is going to be the one going down, no matter how much you know about the tactic, it’ll boil down to luck in timing and player skill.

kylia.4813:

Apostate.2459:

I play a rabid condition Mez and in all honesty I’ve never seen it proc for 4500.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMI_MzO52lw

Fight 3. 7k ish proc x4.

lol I had no idea it could reach 7000. cool vid thnx for the link.

kylia.4813:

Apostate.2459:

I play a rabid condition Mez and in all honesty I’ve never seen it proc for 4500.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMI_MzO52lw

Fight 3. 7k ish proc x4.

Best way to fight a confusion Mesmer is to figure out they are a confusion Mesmer.
Most will lead with confusion. So take an initial hit and read your opponent before opening up on them. As a thief you have a lot of battlefield control. After figuring out they are a confusion build. Wait for their burst

Hehe, nice video.

To all non-mesmers who are shocked by seeing how devastating this is:
Please notice how the mesmer blows all his utility skills (and the F2 shatter) at once as soon the fight starts. This build is a one-trick pony. If you avoid the first (and only) burst, it takes the mesmer about 40 seconds to get the cooldowns ready for another.

My tip:
When you run through one of those pink-coloured mesmer AoE effects and get confusion debuff, instantly turn around, do a dogde roll or two and run away! But only for a few seconds until the confusion wears off. After that, you’ll have about 30 seconds time to kill the mesmer without having to worry about huge stacks of confusion.

In my opinion, glamour confusion builds are very easy to counter, but most ppl are clueless about game mechanics and just kill themselves.

Snoxx.7943:

In my opinion, glamour confusion builds are very easy to counter, but most ppl are clueless about game mechanics and just kill themselves.

Any Confusion build is not difficult to deal with if you just stop mashing your keyboard for a second and pay attention. Fortunately for us, 99% of WvWers don’t understand that.